Cold brew coffee with milk

Add coarsely ground coffee to a large carafe or mason jar with a capacity of at least 1.2 litres - the grind should resemble coarse sea salt so the grounds filter out easily later. Coarseness is the foundation of great results.

Pour in cold water at room temperature and stir thoroughly with a wooden spoon or long spoon until all the coffee is saturated and no dry patches remain on the surface.

Seal the carafe with a lid or cover with plastic wrap to prevent refrigerator odours or kitchen dust from getting into the brew.

Let the carafe steep for 12 to 18 hours at room temperature or in the refrigerator - cold steeping produces a smoother result, while room temperature steeping is more intense and slightly faster.

Halfway through (optionally), gently swirl the carafe once so the coffee extracts evenly, but do not shake it to avoid unnecessarily stirring up the grounds.

Pour the finished brew through a fine-mesh strainer lined with a double layer of cheesecloth or a paper coffee filter into a clean carafe - straining takes a few minutes, so don't rush and don't press the coffee. Otherwise, grounds will get into the concentrate and the drink will be cloudy.

Discard the used coffee grounds in the compost or use them as a body scrub. Store the strained cold brew in a sealed carafe in the refrigerator, where it will stay fresh for up to 7 days.

Add four ice cubes to each glass to keep the drink consistently cold even after diluting with milk.

Fill the glasses with cold brew concentrate to about two-thirds full (approximately 200 ml per glass) and top up with about 100 ml of chilled milk - you can use dairy, oat, almond, or soy milk according to taste.

Stir gently with a long spoon and sweeten to taste with cane sugar or maple syrup. Sweetener dissolves more slowly in cold brew, so a liquid version is preferable.